Reasons Why Amorim Will Most Likely Fail at Manchester United(Possibly Ten Hag top)
Published on November 30, 2025 | By Luyanda Mtshali
The season's abysmal start is no surprise to those who've been paying attention. The writing's been on the wall since Amorim's appointment, and the early warning signs are now being ignored by loyalists. With our best attacker in years forced out and our prized youth academy product languishing on the bench, it's clear that this manager is in over his head.
The reasons behind our current situation are well-documented but I'd like to highlight the glaring issues that seem to be escaping the notice of manager loyalists. I've been sounding the alarm since day one and it's time to stop pretending that Amorim's got a plan.
Main issues are really the fact that he:
- Can’t play players in their positions
- Has an awful system
- Is a serial liar
- Has no man management
- Has no buildup
- Has no results
- Team does not play good football
He can’t even make small tweaks to get short term results whilst still maintains the overarching themes of the system he wants to implement.
Despite all this, I have a bigger worry that everyone seems to overlook and it is the fact that the tactical meta has shifted. Coaches nowadays know how to setup against strict positional roles. Unless the patterns of play are highly co-ordinated like De Zerbi’s, not only is it easy to defend against but the team looks worse.
If Amorim and Ten Hag came to the Premier League in their peak at Ajax and Sporting, it may have allowed them to challenge for the title but Ten Hag didn’t evolve. If Amorim does not evolve as his current trajectory suggests, he is going to continue to fail. He can’t play the same system he did at Sporting for the next 3 years, it won’t work.
People are just assuming that Amorim’s system will work if he is given 500m or the players he wants but at the moment, arguably the best PL manager in the last decade or so which is Pep Guardiola is struggling because of similar reasons. But most people are tactically illiterate so they can’t see the patterns that are happening in European Football.
People are just assuming that Amorim’s system will work if he is given 500m or the players he wants but at the moment, arguably the best PL manager in the last decade or so which is Pep Guardiola is struggling because of similar reasons. But most people are tactically illiterate so they can’t see the patterns that are happening in European Football.
It does not matter what the system. If a manager says they can only play 1 system then they are not elite hence why I was never 100% convinced with Ange Postecoglou. Anyone with a basic tactical understanding can look at Pep’s system and copy it.
That will give you success in lesser leagues when you have superior players like at Ajax, Sporting and Celtic.
The reason people assume that a manager(e.g. Amorim) has the right system and it’s only the players that are the issue is fundamentally because they lack the basic understanding of tactical analysis. Let me put it like this:
If you can’t see fundamental tactical issues without a manager signing 8 players then you are still not going to see them when he has those 8 players. You are just looking at results at that point. But by that point it’s too late because it has been 3 seasons and 500m spent.
That’s why people say a manager needs time. It’s not that a manager needs time, it’s that they need time to be able to look at the results and judge them because they are not able to do it by just look at their tactical setup.
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